Undiscovered Scotland

 

Ardvasar is the main settlement on the southern end of Skye's Sleat Peninsula. Armadale, only a short distance to the north-east, is much better known as the terminal of the Mallaig ferry. But as somewhere offering a range of community facilities, Ardvasar has always had the edge over its near-neighbour.

The unclassified main road through Ardvasar is single track, as is the road into the village from Armadale. This can make driving through the village interesting, and it pays to look ahead for oncoming traffic as well as around you at your surroundings.

You will, inevitable, first approach Ardvasar from the north-east, from Armadale. As you turn off the A851 in Armadale, you enter what feels like a tunnel of woodland surrounding the road, which opens on your right or uphill side to give glimpses of the hillside above, carpeted in the pink of Rosebay Willowherb at the right time of year.

After a few hundred yards, the trees give way to rocky shoreline on your left. The bay here is used for mooring some small locally-based boats and the views from here (see header image) beyond the moored boats to the wilderness of Knoydart, are spectacular. On your right, opposite the bay, are a series of what seem to be workshops in sheds.

As you enter the village itself you pass, on your right, the Ardvasar Food Store and not far beyond it, the Community Hall. A little further on and just beyond its car park you come across the most imposing building in the village, the Ardvasar Hotel, which has stood here since in the early 1800s. As well as accommodation you'll find a friendly welcome and an excellent choice and quality of food on offer here.

From the hotel it is uphill to much of the rest of the village. Beyond a tiny craft shop and the village phone box, the village becomes largely residential, although near its far end you find the post office, in what might more properly be called Calligarry. From the main road through the village, a couple of cul-de-sac side roads head steeply uphill to more houses and cottages, some of which have especially good views across the Sound of Sleat.

The road through Ardvasar carries on for a further four miles before coming to an end in the crofting township of Aird of Sleat, notable primarily for its superb views and for the start of a two mile walk to the Point of Sleat.